100 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND 
     
    
   
   
    
     £2,000 towards the Patriotic Fund, in support of widows and 
     
     orphans of soldiers and sailors, who fell during the Russian 
     
     war ; with their generous sympathy, thus evinced by the people’s 
     
     representatives, the Governor expressed great satisfaction. 
     
    
   
   
    
     In the month of March a serious disaster occurred to the 
     
     ice boats while crossing from Cape Tormentine to Cape 
     
     Traverse. The boats left Tormentine with their usual crew 
     
     and three passengers, two of whom were Messers. Johnson 
     
     and Haszard, medical students, returning from college, and a 
     
     Mr. Wier, of Bangor, Maine. When within half a mile of the 
     
     Island shore a severe snow storm was encountered, against 
     
     which it was impossible to make any headway. After a con- 
     
     sultation the boat was turned bottom up as a protection from 
     
     the cold and fury of the storm. They drifted about for two 
     
     days and nights, but on the morning of the third day, the 
     
     storm having abated, they observed the Nova Scotia shore a 
     
     few miles off, towards which they began to move the boat. 
     
     But not having tasted food for three days, they had become 
     
     weak and exhausted and were about giving up further efforts, 
     
     when they resolved to kill a small dog which had accompanied 
     
     them, and of necessity the passengers and crew drank the blood 
     
     and ate the flesh. Being revived a little, they continued 
     
     moving towards the shore, but on the evening of the fourth 
     
     day poor young Haszard died. The survivors, after suffering 
     
     the hardships and exposures of the Straits for the fourth 
     
     night, landed with the body of poor Haszard and all the mails, 
     
     at a point near Wallace, Nova Scotia, at a distance of two 
     
     miles from the nearest dwelling, this in time they reached, 
     
     where they were most hospitably received and kindly cared for. 
     
     Being much frost-bitten they remained there until able to be 
     
     removed to their own homes later in the spring. 
     
    

    
     About thirty military pensioners arrived in Charlottetown 
     
     from Newfoundland in May, and were employed by the Gov- 
     
     ernment as a local military force taking up their quarters in 
     
     the deserted Barracks, under the command of Major of Militia, 
     
     their uniform was of green cloth with black facings, while their 
     
     arms consisted of short rifles and swords. This celebrated 
     
     corps known as the “Ragged Regiment” served for a few 
     
     months only, when they were disbanded. 
     
    

    
     An Act for the incorporation of Charlottetown having been 
     
     passed by the Legislature during its last session, an election